The Rebbe Guides the Philanthropist

Presented in honor of Gimmel Tammuz, an excerpt from the new book Learning on the Job: Jewish Career Lessons is the business guidance the Rebbe gave to philanthropist Mr. Zalman Jaffe.

By Dovid Zaklikowski

English businessman Zalmon Jaffe would travel twice a year to spend Jewish holidays with the Rebbe, becoming a familiar and beloved figure at Lubavitch world headquarters. Witty and jovial, Mr. Jaffe attended services and Hasidic gatherings, met with the Rebbe, studied the Rebbe’s teachings and reveled in the atmosphere, bringing smiles to all he met.

Mr. Jaffe’s correspondence with the Rebbe spans close to 40 years and includes some 260 letters from the Rebbe. The Rebbe guided him in his communal work and offered him business advice. Much of the correspondence, however, is dedicated to the connection between faith, giving charity, and success in business.

When Mr. Jaffe expressed anxiety about his business, the Rebbe urged calm: “Don’t worry so much about business. More faith, more livelihood,” he wrote. When Mr. Jaffe wrote that “I see that my faith has been justified in the development of the ease of bringing in the imports,” the Rebbe responded that he hoped this realization would stimulate “even a greater measure of faith and a corresponding calming effect.”

The Rebbe’s business advice was often shrewd. He advised Mr. Jaffe to be more adamant with his bank. When he sought a loan, the Rebbe told him, “Request a large one.” When the bank was not cooperating and interest rates were too high, the Rebbe told him to look into other banks.

During a particularly rough period, the Rebbe even offered him a loan. “Please let me know if you want it and in what installments you would find it convenient to repay,” the Rebbe wrote.

The Rebbe advised Mr. Jaffe to diversify his businesses and investments: “You should be [doing more] than just rent-collecting.”

If the matter was beyond the Rebbe’s experience, he did not hesitate to acknowledge it. He advised Mr. Jaffe to speak to an expert on several occasions. Other times the Rebbe made tentative suggestions, admitting that he might be mistaken: “This is outside my competence, and I have made this observation only for what it is worth,” he wrote in one letter.

In 1963, the Rebbe wrote that Mr. Jaffe’s markup on retail goods seemed too low. If that is the standard markup in the market, or if you are trying to lure new customers, he wrote, then it might be acceptable. “But if both considerations do not apply in this case, a revision of policy is indicated.”

In his diaries (published in the series My Encounter with the Rebbe), Mr. Jaffe expresses his amazement at the Rebbe’s focus on charity. He glowingly describes the Rebbe’s distribution of coins to small children to give to charity, and how the Rebbe would stand for hours each Sunday distributing dollars for the same purpose.

Traditionally, at least one-tenth of one’s income is given to charity. In the Rebbe’s first letter to Mr. Jaffe, he wrote that in his opinion Mr. Jaffe should give more than one-tenth. The Rebbe quoted the sages (Talmud, Taanit 9a) that “we can rely on G-d’s faithfulness to fulfill His promise of ‘to become rich’” when we give extra charity.

Even when business was not good, Mr. Jaffe continued to give regularly. “I was especially pleased to learn from your letter that even when business was not all that could be desired for a while, you maintained your charity at somewhat more than just a tenth,” the Rebbe wrote in 1957, “which showed that your faith in G-d did not weaken, and G-d does not remain in debt and rewards generously, so that before long one can see that one’s faith was justified.”

Later, when Mr. Jaffe reported that business was again doing well, the Rebbe wrote, “I was pleased to read… that you so quickly saw the fulfillment of G-d’s promise…. Thus, your pledge… has been returned to you manifold.”
Had he pledged more, the Rebbe added, “the benefit would have been so much greater. I trust, however, that this will be a lesson for the future, to remember how trust in G-d is well rewarded.”

On another occasion, when profits were growing, the Rebbe told him to increase his donations in kind. “Needless to say, when I write of an increase in charity, I do not mean at the expense of the charity you have been giving all the time, but an increase in the charity you give, which is indicated by the growth of the business, as mentioned above,” the Rebbe wrote in 1963.

By giving generously even when business was bad, the Rebbe once wrote, you “confidently and completely realize that G-d is your partner in the business…. The more charity you give, the larger is G-d’s share of the partnership.”

The new volume is available at your local Judaica store or Amazon.com. Bulk orders are available from [email protected].